Today I turn 30!

Today I turn 30. A day that as a teenager I couldn’t imagine ever reaching because it was so far away! Now here I sit pondering the past 10 years of my life and excited about the life ahead of me. I must say that if I was 20 again and interviewing myself at 30, I would be impressed at the life and adventures that I experienced in 10 years. It is unimaginable to some the transformations that have taken place in me, but one thing has remained constant throughout the years, and that has been my desire to understand the world around me, live life to the fullest, and not waste time on things that are of no benefit to me.
After High School it was my intention to become an OBGYN, and so I enrolled at Western Washington University. After only 1.5 years, and much soul searching, I decided that becoming a doctor was not the right career path for me. I just couldn’t see myself sitting in school for upwards of 11 years and eventually having a career that would disable me from spending the amount of time I would like with my future children. I dropped out of college, moved back home, and began going to Beauty School. Ever since I was little I had a natural talent and interest in cosmetology, and thought it a good idea to officially learn the trade as I tried to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. I attended beauty school for 2 years and got my diploma.
After completing Beauty School, I still had no clue as to what I wanted to be. Strangely, after going through the 1800 hours of school I decided not to utilize my skills as a cosmetologist, and decided to start going to real estate school. I attended the Rockwell Institute and graduated, then got hired on as a realtor with Windermere Real Estate as their youngest real estate agent at the Redmond office. At that time I think I was 24. After working for Windermere for only 3 months I knew that real estate was not the industry for me, and I quit.
I know what you’re thinking… but wait it gets better! Amidst all of this school I was an exotic dancer, aka. stripper, adult entertainer, it had many names. My stage name was Angel, and I took that name because no one including myself would have ever guessed that this is a career that I would have partaken of. I was the good girl growing up. The straight A student. The brainiac who was going to be a doctor! What was I doing taking my clothes off in front of thousands of strange men? Well, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to use my assets to fund my lifestyle and to save up for my future. I was not shy about being nude, and I took my career very seriously. In my first year dancing at age 20, I competed in my local club for the title of Showgirl of the Year and won! I then went to regionals which included girls from Washington State, California, Oregon, Idaho and Montana and won that as well. My official title was “2000 West Coast Show Girl of the Year”. I then went to Nationals where I placed 6th. As a newbee to the industry, this title helped boost my confidence as well as my interest in the industry, and I worked extremely hard to be the best entertainer I could be and make as much money as possible. I must say, it was a lot of money!
I moved to Las Vegas Nevada at age 24 after quitting Windermere to do my last stint as an entertainer. By this time I had been dancing since I was 18 and was getting pretty irritated with the industry. I had a certain financial goal set and a timeline of finishing up this chapter in my life by age 25. I achieved this goal and at age 25 moved back to Washington and quit dancing. Taking the step to end my career was far more difficult than I could have ever imagined, but one morning after work I had received revelation while watching a sermon about pornography on the Christian channel and it gave me the will to go in to work the next night and quit.
I got a job working for Macy’s as a Bridal Registry consultant because I had always been interested in special events, particularly weddings. I also enrolled in George Washington University online to get my Event Management certificate. While studying this program, I realized two things. One, I could have written the course myself since everything seemed so common sense to me and two, this is the industry that I was truly made to be in. Little did I know that this dream would be placed on the back burner when a rare opportunity or twist of fate if you will presented itself to me.
Working at Macy’s was fun, but it was only a temporary gig while I figured out what my next move would be. My mom called me one day while I was at work telling me that she saw a sign in downtown Monroe advertising for a manager for a new salon opening up called Sports Cuts. Although I never worked in a salon, I knew that I could easily manage one, and also thought it a great opportunity to finally utilize my Cosmetology license by also doing hair. I called the owners up and scheduled an interview. The salon wasn’t set up yet, and the owners were just investors with no knowledge of the industry. They hired me on the spot and I started telling them what the salon needed to run. Long story short, 3 weeks later the owners literally skipped town, and the building owner who had a vested interest in the salon sold it to me. It all happened rather quickly, and before I knew it I was a salon owner working diligently to make my business a success. I kept the name Sports Cuts and I also kept it a salon for only men and boys since I really didn’t like doing women’s hair, and it was a great niche.
I started out as the only stylist in my salon only cutting between 1 and 3 haircuts a day as I built my clientele. To keep my overhead low, I built my salon up as the months passed and I could afford to add more and more. It wasn’t rare to find me up on a ladder painting the walls, or directing contractors during remodels in between haircuts. The clients didn’t seem to mind, and in fact thought I was a very smart business owner by doing most of the labor myself and keeping my overhead low in the beginning.
While starting up the salon, I attended a financial seminar by a stock and options trading company called Investools, and decided to enroll in their school. My dad and I decided to go in on it together, and I was really excited about becoming a day-trader!
As the salon’s reputation expanded, I began hiring on girls to lease space in the salon. I was meeting a lot of men, but none that were the type I was looking for in a husband. I formed a list of about 100 qualities my future husband must have and I decided to be proactive about finding this unlikely dream man. I started online dating through Match.com and found that most of the guys were just looking for a good time, and nothing serious. I decided to invest in my future by hiring a professional match-maker through a company called, “It’s Just Lunch: Dating for Business professionals”. After meeting with my matchmaker and giving her my list of 100 criteria, she began sending me on dates with all types of men. She was spot on with the matchmaking, but it was the chemistry that was the key. For my 7th date, I was set up with a man named Keith Marino, and when we met it was love at first sight. A day later he said “I love you”, a month later we were engaged, and 4 months later, on 07-07-07, we were married!
I always dreamed of having a grandiose wedding, but as it turned out for financial reasons, we decided to just get married “city hall” style, only in my dad’s backyard with no one but our photographers who also doubled as our witnesses. The whole idea was to make our marriage official and then later when we could afford it have a large wedding that all of our family and friends could attend. For this reason as well, I opted out of getting a wedding dress, and we decided to wear golf attire for our wedding and go to the driving range after our nuptials! Crazy I know, but wonderful!
During our short engagement Keith, who likes to be called Keiffer, and I bought a townhome in Sedro Woolley Washington. It was a neutral location allowing both of us an equal commute of about an hour but travelling in opposite directions. I was not in the least bit excited to live in this small town, since I considered myself a city girl, and it was a far cry from downtown Seattle and Las Vegas! It was cozy though and both of our first home. I brought along my boxer Aneylah age 6 and my cat Mocha age 11. Shortly after we moved in, my dog developed cancer in her spinal cord and I had to put her to sleep. It was the hardest decision that I have ever had to make. We immediately purchased two more dogs named Trump and Tully, a Hungarian Vizsla and a Weimaraner. We didn’t waste any time getting pregnant and shortly after we found out, Keiffer deployed to Japan for 6 months. There I was stuck in the boonies with two puppies chewing up our house, a big pregnant belly, and no husband! He was home for the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy and on 07-17-08, our daughter Calista was born. I had just turned 28.
On the first day we met, Keiffer and I discussed raising children, and agreed that we would raise our children in a faith-based home, but we disagreed on the type of church we would attend. Since I was a little girl, I always had a faith in Jesus Christ and after quitting dancing I began going to a non-denominational church. Keiffer was an inactive member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and tried to convince me to check it out. The first Sunday after Calista was born, Keiffer was back in church and ready to get his life back on track spiritually. I watched him go by himself for about 3 weeks and on the 4th Sunday I went with him to check it out and to get our daughter a blessing. I wasn’t too impressed by the look of the building since it was old and quiet. The church I was used to going to was loud, energetic and brand new. I was intrigued though with notion of the restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ and decided it would be the right thing to at least learn what the church believed and see if it made sense to me. I had the missionaries over and studied the church doctrine daily. After 3 months of investigating the church I knew that it was the true church of Christ and I decided to get baptized in October of 2008.
Keiffer and I both agreed that we wanted to have our children close together and have either 3 or 4, so we planned my second pregnancy when Calista was 5.5 months old and on 09-14-09 our second daughter Bridget was born.
During the two years of being pregnant and having my two daughters, I quit working in the salon, and just managed it. I built the salon up to having 4 stylists and a massage therapist. Our client base went from zero to over a couple thousand in less than 4 years! Although the economy took a big hit, my salon was able to stay afloat and business remained decent. Amidst all of the business of running the salon and having two babies, Investools got placed on the back-burner, and I vowed to one day pick it back up.
Keiffer was stationed in Washington for 3 years, so we were due to transfer to another state in February of 2010. Keiffer was selected to be commissioned, which offered a huge raise and a change of rank in the military making him an officer! We decided to celebrate his commissioning as well as our wedding before leaving Washington. The week prior to our commissioning ceremony/wedding reception, Keiffer and I along with our two daughters, went to the Mormon temple in Seattle and were sealed as a family.
San Diego California is where we were being transferred for 3 years and the time came in November to pack up our home in Sedro Woolley and rent it out. Keiffer had to attend officer training school on the east coast for 3 months, so the girls and I moved in with my sister and her two kids in Marysville Washington. I turned the salon over to my mom to manage and in February 2010, at age 29, I moved with my husband and two daughters to sunny San Diego California!
We were on cloud 9 when we got to San Diego! The city is so beautiful and our house is in a gated master-planned community surrounded by a private golf course. Everything is within 25 minutes from our home and we have spent more time together out doing fun things in 4 months than we have done in 3 years of being together! Keiffer joined a squadron scheduled to deploy for 7-8 months in July and since we moved has already left for a total of 5 weeks to do some pre-deployment exercises.
My 30th year is going to be a tough one since Keiffer will be deployed on the USS Lincoln for a greater part of the year. Calista is turning two in a month and Bridget will be turning one in September. I think that we will be alright though since we have made many new friends in our church’s ward, and we have all of the amazing attractions to go to here in sunny San Diego! I can’t think of a better place to be raising two kids alone while my husband is deployed!
My plans for my 30’s are to have two more kids, keep building my salon up, and start up my own event planning business which will specialize in picnics. I would like to finish my Investools training and have some investments in the stock market. I am going to work to expand my knowledge and faith in the gospel, and I want to take up some hobbies like sailing, surfing and crafting. I wasn’t to spend more time on the golf course too! I am going to make sure that I stay active and strengthen my body to be the most fit it has ever been. I am going to be an amazing, supportive and appreciative wife to my husband Keiffer and I am going to be the best mother that a child could ask for! My 20’s were all about discovery and experimentation. I am excited for the joys and blessings that will come from my 30’s as a wife, mother and woman. Life is good!